New Zealand’s cabinet ministers will meet today to discuss whether any law changes are needed after a terrorist stabbed shoppers in an Auckland supermarket last week. The country had tried for years to deport Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, a 32-year-old Sri Lankan man, who was shot dead by police officers following Friday’s attack. Seven people were hurt in the attack, five of them with stab wounds. Three of those injured were in a critical condition in hospital on Saturday. Samsudeen was fighting to keep his refugee status in New Zealand when he carried out the attack, which Jacinda Ardern said was inspired by the Islamic State. Officials had tried to justify detaining Samsudeen in jail until his asylum case was resolved but there were no legal grounds for doing so. Instead, 30 officers watched him around the clock for more than 50 days before he grabbed a knife from a supermarket shelf and attacked shoppers, metres away from the undercover police surveilling him. Friday’s attack provoked fresh debate about a proposed law change currently before parliament that would make the act of planning a terrorist attack a crime – a legal gap identified after the Christchurch shooting. The government has vowed to fast-track this reform in the wake of Friday’s attack. On Sunday, the deputy prime minister, Grant Robertson, said the government had explored every legal avenue to keep Samsudeen out of the community. “We have at every turn … gone to every part of the law.” Robertson said a person could not be detained under the Immigration Act for anything other than deportation. “We are looking at the full sweep of the Immigration Act,” he said. “If we were to change that there is a very significant move and would need quite a lot of consideration.” Cabinet will consider today the possibility of a wider investigation after the man’s death. There were a range of reviews that are possible, Robertson said. But other MPs are cautioning against a kneejerk reaction. Green Party immigration spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman told RNZ she was apprehensive of any law change that would make it easier to deport someone who was granted refugee status. “We’re actually doing something that’s pretty serious and pretty kneejerk in terms of whether it would ever have addressed any of the issues that come about when we’re talking about radicalisation here in New Zealand,” Ghahraman said. “It’s really missing the point and doing something that’s dangerous.” She said the focus should be on rehabilitation rather than immigration status.